✒Nothing – not government cuts, not the Middle East, not even cats in bins – gets you commenting as furiously as sexual politics. If all we cared about was starting a rumble – and, honest, it's not – we'd know just how to wind you up.

So we expected a big response to Kira Cochrane's cover story last Friday. What we got was a huge one. As the readers' room went to press, there were 830 comments at guardian.co.uk/g2, and more than 150 tweets.

What had you fired up?Kira's denunciation of "rape talk" after the boxer David Haye promised his title fight with Audley Harrison would be as "one-sided as a gang rape". "The use of the word 'rape' to describe all kinds of bad experience – from getting beaten up in a boxing match, to having your hairdo completely ruined – has recently become usual, average, shruggable," Kira wrote. "It is now regularly used where 'nightmare' or an apt expletive would previously have been in order." Then there are the "jokes". "When you use rape in jokes, or as a glib aside about the terrible sandwich you ate at lunch, you're suggesting the crime just isn't very serious."

Quite a few of you were shocked that Kira was shocked. "Haye is paid a great deal of money to go into a 20 x 20 ring in front of thousands of people and beat another man to a bloody pulp," objected Ghengis. "You would think the comment had been made via an MP's question at Prime Minister's Questions." Paul Marsh emailed g2feedback@guardian.co.uk to say: "I often enjoy Kira's writing but on this occasion she was wildly off the mark."

batz, meanwhile, reckoned the article was "a fantastic example of Guardianland/CiF's occasional trips to la-la land. None of us has been given the right to go through life without being offended. That's the price of free speech. Can you please get your head round that and desist with your censorious knee-jerking? Thanks."

If only everyone could be so detached. "I was raped when I was 16," commented LibertarianLou, "and sometimes hearing these sorts of jokes/stories makes me have some pretty nasty flashbacks. It's not the fault of the person making the joke, I don't expect them to know this or even [that it should be] their problem – I imagine it's my fault for never having talked about this to anyone rather than their fault for making jokes. But I'm just saying, this is not a made-up issue – it's pretty horrible hearing colleagues shout 'Yes, totally raped them with that deal!' and high-fiving each other or whatever. I have had to leave the room and sit in a loo cubicle having a flashback on more than one occasion."

✒Monday's report on Greenland's oil rush provoked some surprisingly civilised debate, given it touched on global warming. Yes, there was some to-and froing about the benefits for the locals ("They should just look at the Gulf of Mexico to see how offshore oil drilling will transform their lives," warned ikesolem, while NeverMindTheBollocks countered: "It's great to see that native people will be benefiting from this find"), but the tone remained courteous.

Well, mostly. When Desperado2012 suggested Britain might meet its fuel needs by planting industrial hemp over a third of the country, perhaps with the help of the unemployed, Gangoffour could not restrain himself: "I look forward to the British being forcibly displaced from their homes, the forests mowed down and whatever else that is important to somebody being removed so monolithic agriculture of an invasive weed can occur. Frankenweed . . . brought to you courtesy of your delusional and stoned tree-huggers."

✒ If you like more glamour in your paper, you got it on Tuesday, when Pamela Stephenson Connolly became a Strictly Come Dancing contestant. "OMG," she marvelled (that's "Oh my God", unless she was dictating with her mouth full), "I – a 60-year-old author and mental health professional – have joined the latest lineup of celebrity contestants for BBC1's beloved primetime show. This is no reality show; rather it is an unreality show – a fantasy ride for contestants and viewers. It is a journey of frothy dreams, camp comfort and elegant escapism." Plus, she revealed, fake tan and total below-stairs depilation. "I have been metamorphosised into a purveyor of camp."

"I'm sorry," tweeted @JLucas86. "It is just too early in the day for me to be reading about Pamela Stephenson's shaved pudenda." But max867's concerns were broader. "One of the great things about the British people used to be their disdain for crap like 'Strictly'. Now all the years of Big Brother and X Factor seem to have created a collective softening of the national brain. What happens on 'Strictly'? A bunch of people who you have more or less heard of are put on television to engage in an activity which they're no good at . . . And somehow that's worth reporting at length in every serious national newspaper? 'Dumbing down' doesn't begin to describe it."

It must be hard to feel so isolated from popular culture. How kind of Oceane to try to bridge the gap: "Let me see if I can explain this. I think it's going to be a tricky concept for you to grasp, so please concentrate . . . It's fun."

✒What about Wednesday's "essential guide" to the pope's visit? "The pope is as catholic in his prejudices as he is in his faith," warned John Crace. "Never a shrinking violet even before he was elected to the papacy in 2005, he has managed to insult just about everyone . . . If he hasn't got round to anything you care about yet, just give him a bit more time."

This article too was "a bit of fun", according to Jisabel. But JamesdelaMare begged to differ: "More like a vicious attempt by a bigoted journalist to make the visit seem like a crime and the pope a criminal. Not the way for what is supposed to be a liberal newspaper to behave.

"Over the years many people far, far worse than him have visited Britain and been politely welcomed," he continued. "I'm not a Roman Catholic or religious, but I do believe the RCs should run their church in the way THEY see fit, not as emotive busybodies like [Peter] Tatchell and Crace presume to tell others it should be run."

But hold on! What about the big issue: the Guardian's . . . ummm, idiosyncratic approach to capitalisation? "Upper-case Q for the Queen, lower-case p for the Pope," noted columbus. "He's only the spiritual leader of a billion people, but the Guardian's loathing of Catholicism is too great to expect courtesy even in a typeface. Hugo Young must be turning in his grave."

Thank you, dear readers, for being so gentle. Rather than pointing out the article's many shortcomings, you diluted them with your own stories. Trilobyte was "delighted to have found a particular rich picking ground for ceps miles from anywhere deep in a forest. I've picked absolutely pounds and pounds of them this year – delicious in an omelette", while fionaflynn had "picked three big white mushrooms from a patch on the sea bank on the Wash, early Saturday morning. They were fantastic, and did for a big fried breakfast and an omelette the following day."

It wasn't just the edible ones you got all lyrical about. "When I was a kid back home in Finland I sometimes followed my parents to mushroom picking excursions," recalled Villiorvokki. "My mom made sure I knew what I was dealing with; until today I can easily recognise the most beautiful of all mushrooms, Amanita muscaria."

That particular species is better known as fly agaric; as well as giving you hallucinations, it can make you extremely sick. Best avoid it: we need you well enough to comment.

Briefly speaking

"How do they know she's a prostitute? Maybe that was less embarrassing to say than her real job, like Tory MP or something" – singleta sniffs out the real scandal at The X Factor

"My hometown has been judged 'snobby' by the @Guardiang2. Do them in next time they're here" – @kirstenjjpeters sticks up for Lymington

"When I want to work I take my internet cable, walk down three flights of stairs and lock it into my postbox. It's the only way" – KuchenCake offers Charlie Brooker some productivity tips

"What about Jesus? He was British, wasn't he?" – tommi103333 spots a gap in Tom Meltzer's list of great Britons

• If you would like to comment on any of the stories in G2, or just want to join in the debates, go to guardian.co.uk/g2 to add your comments, tweet us @guardiang2 or email us at g2feedback@guardian.co.uk. On Fridays the most interesting feedback will be printed on these pages

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